Ubisoft has indefinitely suspended development on 1666, following the dismissal of Patrice Désilets, creative lead on this game, and creative director on Assassin’s Creed and Assassin’s Creed II.

Désilets left Ubisoft to set up a new Montreal-based studio with THQ. When that publisher folded earlier this year, Ubisoft picked up the studio and its intellectual property. However, Désilets was dismissed two months later.

In an investor call last night, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said, “After more than two months of discussion with [Désilets], we couldn't align our vision both on project development and team management. Consequently our collaboration has ended. We have suspended development on 1666 for an undisclosed time.”

Online Passes for EA titles will be a thing of the past, according to the publisher, which said it made the decision based on player feedback.

“Yes, we’re discontinuing Online Pass,” EA senior director of corporate communications John Reseburg told VentureBeat. “None of our new EA titles will include that feature.”

The Online Pass programme was instituted by EA as a way to earn revenue from second-hand sales of its games. A code for online access would be supplied with copies of the game purchased new, which would unlock online features including multiplayer. The code could only be redeemed once, which meant second-hand purchasers would need to buy a new code from EA if the original purchaser already redeemed it.